A San Francisco startup wants to make it easier for other new companies to finance their operations with a corporate credit card.

Brex, which was created in 2017 by the founders of the Brazilian payment processing company Pagar.me, raised $125 million this month in a round of funding led by investment firms Greenoaks Capital, IVP and DST Global — which is why it is trending on the startup database Crunchbase.

“The same thing that Stripe or Square did for online or offline payments, we’re doing for credit cards,” Brex co-founder and CEO Henrique Dubugras said.

Dubugras and co-founder Pedro Franceschi found it difficult to get a corporate card for their startup in Brazil: It had to be personally guaranteed. So they realized how big the market would be for a corporate credit card for startups.

Brex, which has 57 employees and $182 million in funding, does the underwriting and financing. It has access to startups’ bank accounts, so it can see how much money the companies have and assign credit limits accordingly.

The company offers credit limits that are 10 to 20 times higher than traditional corporate credit card limits. The process of getting a card is also much faster. Startups can sign up, be approved and have a working digital card within a few minutes.

Brex also offers employee credit cards with lower limits. Dubugras would not disclose how many cards Brex has issued.

Sutton Bank, which is based in Ohio and also works with San Francisco payments company Square, issues the credit card. But Brex does all of the underwriting and processing, and it has its own technology, Dubugras said. Startups have to pay off the balance of the card at the end of each month, and Brex automatically withdraws the amount from the startups’ bank accounts.

The company plans to use part of its new funding for a rewards program.

Deal of the Week: Onward

What it does: Customer service automation.

What happened: It was acquired by Google.

Why it matters: Onward had raised only $120,000 in funding, according to Crunchbase, so it may have been an acquisition for the purpose of gaining Onward’s employees.

Headquarters: San Francisco

Funding: Undisclosed

Employees: 1-10

Also trending: Prepd

What it does: Prepd provides lunchboxes designed to make preparing healthy meals easy, using its recipe app and in consultation with San Francisco nutritionists and chefs.

What happened: Announced a new Kickstarter campaign to raise money, and introduced four new colors for the lunchbox.

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Why it matters: While food delivery companies have proliferated, Prepd is for people who want to prepare their own meals and bring food to work. “You have everything you need to cook and take lunch on a regular basis,” said co-founder Chris Place.

Headquarters: Los Angeles

Funding: $3.4 million raised in an initial Kickstarter campaign, more than $200,000 raised in the new campaign

Sophia Kunthara is a Hearst Journalism Fellow on the business desk. She's a two-time graduate of Arizona State University and spent the first year of the fellowship with the Connecticut Post covering breaking news and local government. Sophia has interned at The Arizona Republic, NBC Los Angeles and Reuters, and her hobbies include keeping up with the latest memes on Twitter and going to concerts.